— // — KARTLI — // —
A documentary film /
By Tamar Kalandadze & Julien Pebrel
Coproduction /
Habilis Productions (France) & Sakdoc Film (Georgia)
Status /
In development
With the support of /
- Fonds d’Aide à l’Innovation Audiovisuelle - CNC
- Bourse d'écriture "Brouillon d'un rêve" de la SCAM
- Aide à l'écriture documentaire, Région Normandie
- Aide au co-développement de projets à l'international, Région Normandie
- DokLeipzig Co-Pro Market / Ji.hlava New Visions Market / CHANGE, EAVE Workshop
Kartli is the name of the old Kingdom of Georgia, the cradle of the identity of modern Sakartvelo.
It is also the name of a sanatorium in Tbilisi where dozens of Georgian families, refugees from the Abkhazian conflict (1992-93), settled 30 years ago, fleeing the shore of the Black Sea to find refuge, as if by the irony of fate, on the shore of Tbilisis Zgva, the "Sea of Tbilisi", the artificial lake facing the sanatorium.
Before the independence of Georgia, during the soviet time, this sanatorium used to be a high-quality heart hospital but as it was almost empty during the civil war, the families settled here.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Abkhazia did the same and settled in schools, kindergartens, hospitals, hotels and anywhere they found enough space.
30 years after they are still here.
During this period, there was no hope for anybody to be resettled, official procedures seemed impossible to achieve.
But today things have changed, the resettlement has started, very slowly but it has started.
The hope is here for everybody to have one day a decent home. A hope that came from a drama : the suicide of one of Kartli’s inhabitant to protest against government inactivity.
A hope that is also a fear. The fear to leave this building, the place where after the war each of them has found a community, a family, to live the unbearable exil.
